There’s a statewide election, and it’s no surprise that Quentin Palfrey has popped up again to seek another statewide office. After winning the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 2018, Quentin showed up again to pull papers to run for Attorney General.
No discussion of structural racism is complete without an examination of legacy admissions to elite colleges. Opponents of affirmative action never seem to connect it with legacy admission, which is a generational express lane that benefits the privileged elite. Quentin Palfrey isn’t just a legacy admit, he’s a multi-generational legacy admit. Quentin’s admission letter to Harvard College was stapled to his birth certificate.
His website claims Quentin is working to “dismantle the structural racism that holds so many back,” but he’s a social justice commuter. When he moved back to Massachusetts after a stint in Washington, he bought a home in Weston. Weston is at the tail end of the tail distribution on all measures of per-capita income and exclusionary zoning. Apparently Quentin doesn’t want his work to follow him home.
While I admire Quentin’s desire to serve in elective office, it is a demonstration of a sense of elite privilege that he views statewide office as the starting point of his quest. City council? Select Board? School Committee? State Representative? All beneath him. He wants a ticket to the very top of the political hierarchy, without toiling in the vineyards he wants to oversee.
Quentin, if you want to aspire to higher office, move out of your exclusive community and buy a home in Somerville, Framingham, Salem, or Lowell. Live with your commitment to social justice. Run for local office. Make a difference. Once you do that, you could become a credible statewide candidate.
You slapped him around for his background when he ran for LG too. What’s he done to you?
For the very same reasons. I’m a local government guy. The LG and AG have significant roles interacting with local government. The last thing we need in these offices is someone who finds local elected office to be beneath him.
Some people feel more cut out for executive rather than legislative roles. I completely disagree with your premise, but I still feel you attacked him unnecessarily. As always, I would prefer a diary about why you do support either Andrea Campbell or Shannon Liss-Riordan.
In this day and age, I’m less opposed to critical posts than I was in the past. Especially since there is so little participation on BMG that I’m loathe to bust the chops of any less frequent commentator.
At the same time, I would much prefer criticism along the lines of “He lacks the experience and institutional knowledge that comes from paying his dues”.
I think the attacks on him because of his heritage and pedigree are uncalled for.
It’s not an attack. It’s a statement of fact, and I don’t think someone who has gotten everywhere through privilege should move to the front of the line and make his first run for statewide office.
When you’re in a hole, the first step is to stop digging.
Let me try an analogous construction. Consider a black woman from an economically challenged urban neighborhood.
See how the following sounds to you:
Beyond the implied prejudice — against Mr. Palfrey and my hypothetical black woman — your argument is both an opinion and a non-sequitur.
I’ll stipulate that your summary of the background of Mr. Palfrey is factual. That has nothing to do with your summary of Mr. Palfrey’s career.
This is the very same rhetorical device used by right-wing extremists to tie illegal immigration to a host of problems — “Illegal immigration is skyrocketing. We are all horrified about the rise in fill-in-the-blank”.
Your opinion about the role that experience plays in shaping a candidate for statewide office is welcome and valuable.
I encourage you to focus on that argument, and leave the personal attacks on the heritage and background of Mr. Palfrey or anybody else behind.
No. The question is not Mr. Palfrey’s highly privileged background. It is leveraging it with entitlement by starting his quest for elected office with a statewide constitutional office. I am resigned to the fact that the entitled privileged end up bypassing qualified state department workers to become ambassador to Monaco. I don’t want the privileged and entitled gravy train to extend to statewide office in Massachusetts.
He IS just as entitled as any attorney residing in MA to seek the office of AG. He has not said or done a single thing that comes across as believing he is entitled to be elected.
Ah. Apparently you do hate the Kennedy’s just as much.
You must hate the Kennedys then. 🙁
I didn’t vote for Joe Kennedy when he went for Tip’s congressional seat.
I also supported Ed Markey over JKIII, as his primary was also an exhibition of entitlement. “I’m a Kennedy. Of course the senate seat should be mine, and I’m going to take it.”
I supported Markey too, but never got that vibe from Kennedy. Plus, he was Rep first as was Markey, a pretty common political pattern.
I haven’t decided if I will support Andrea or Shannon. I have decided that I don’t think Quentin should be Attorney General.
I’d respect that opinion more if it were based on an issue stance or something in his professional record.
How about lack of professional record?
Sure, I’ll take the bait. I visited his website and yeah, rich white dude, complete with the Vineyard Vines pullover. I’m trying to not judge a book by its cover, or a man by his pullover. He makes sure to hit the typical issues: Climate Change? Check! Reproductive Rights? Check! Racism? Check!
I don’t see much here that annoys me, but then, there’s not much here that I don’t see on every Democratic candidates’ campaign web site.
Has he ever worked as a dishwasher or bar back? I’m on a new quest for working class Democrats in office. So I’ll pass on this guy for now.
From Wikipedia:
Palfrey is the great-great-grandson of United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
Palfrey attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated from Harvard College in 1996 and Harvard Law School in 2002.
Palfrey’s father was born John Gorham Palfrey, III, and is a 1967 graduate of Harvard, as is his mother, born Judith Swarm Sullivan.
His grandfather, John Gorham Palfrey, Jr. or the III (1919-1979),a 1940 graduate of Harvard, was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission by President John F. Kennedy,
His great-grandfather, John Gorham Palfrey II (1875-1945) was an 1896 graduate of Harvard and a lawyer in Boston.
As a public high school graduate, as someone who worked his way through public college, as an urban educator, I want someone as Attorney General who has some shared experiences.
I know I’ve said this many times and will continue to say it. The Democratic Party is losing far too many ordinary working class voters. We can’t sustain the party on the college educated and an assortment of selected oppressed minorities.
We can’t sustain the democracy on white supremacist, domestic terrorist, seditious neo-fascists, sexist misogynists, racist bigots, ignorant xenophobes, stupid book burners, crazy anti-vaxxers and moronic homophobes either.
How many many ordinary working class voters do you think are white supremacist, domestic terrorist, seditious neo-fascists, sexist misogynists, racist bigots, ignorant xenophobes, stupid book burners, crazy anti-vaxxers and moronic homophobes?
From a piece in today’s NYT (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/us/politics/trump-election-lies-republicans.html) (emphasis mine):
Let me highlight those:
It isn’t possible to hold those views without being at least somewhat white supremacist, domestic terrorist, seditious neo-fascists, sexist misogynists, racist bigots, ignorant xenophobes, stupid book burners, crazy anti-vaxxers or moronic homophobes.
Your non-deplorable ordinary working class voter was pushed out of the GOP in the last two years.
What portion of the Fox News audience do you think are ordinary working class voters? What portion of those far-right channels do you think are ordinary working class voters?
A recent Gallup poll (
https://news.gallup.com/poll/388781/political-party-preferences-shifted-greatly-during-2021.aspx) says that about 46% of Americans self-identified as “Republican/Lean Republican” at the end of 2021.
There were 155,508,985 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election. The above Gallup poll says that about 71,534,133 of those voters are Republican or Lean Republican.
That says that more than 50 million voters believe the 2020 election was illegitimate.
How many of these groups do you think are “college educated and an assortment of selected oppressed minorities”?
I’d say almost none. It is worth noting that one of the huge problems today is that a large and growing number “working class voters” are also college educated.
The civil war that we are in the middle of pits the deplorable groups that Fred sketches against the rest of us.
Like it or not, these deplorables are overwhelmingly working class. It is not that all GOP supporters are deplorable. It is instead that all deplorable voters support the GOP.
It is also increasingly irrelevant to argue about voters when the insurrection has been actively strategizing about how to make voting irrelevant since November of 2020.
What difference does voting make when the organizers of the insurrection can plot to use military authorities to seize voting machines, steal classified documents, use the DoJ to attempt to coerce state election officials into altering valid election results, and all the rest — all without ANY action from the DoJ?
So far as I can tell, your favorite “ordinary working class” voters are cut from the same cloth as the “hard hats” and “moral majority” of the Nixon/Agnew years — except today’s version is less educated, heavily armed, and has the full-throated support of the nation’s largest (in terms of ratings) broadcast network.
I’m sorry, my friend, but it’s time to leave your “ordinary working class” trope behind. That may have been relevant in 2016.
It is no longer relevant in 2022.
I enthusiastically agree that it’s part of the problem. Some would argue that that is THE problem.
Problem or not, it is nevertheless, true.
One interesting argument that is becoming more persuasive is that regions and districts that have historically been Democratic — especially densely populated cities — are dramatically outperforming regions and districts that have historically been Republican — rural areas and farmland.
Another trope. How many voters among what demographics in which states?
Winning the votes of the deplorables is a fool’s errand and lost cause.
The goal is to preserve representative democracy and the rule of law. The goal is to put down a violent insurrection.
We must aggressively recruit new Democratic votes so that we outnumber the deplorables in the voting booth.
It is, after all, national demographics that are driving the white supremacist movement. America is becoming a non-white nation. The number of Americans whose first language is English is becoming a minority.
The deplorables are, by and large, relying on mob rule and brute force to fight those demographic trends. The demographic trends will not be reversed.
The question is whether America will allow its non-white majority to take real power in a representative democracy.
Then I strongly encourage you to learn more about the demographics of the Fox News audience.
It sounds like the pool of voters you’re concerned about are “ordinary working class” people who do not watch Fox News, do not believe that the 2020 election was stolen, who are not deplorable, and who feel insulted when we loudly call out white supremacists, insurrectionists, seditionists, racists, misogynists, and so on.
I think that’s a pretty small number.
Yes, so is 0.6% Biden won three states – Wisconsin (ten Electoral Votes), Arizona (11) and Georgia (16) – by 0.6% or less.
I strongly encourage you to learn about the Electoral College and how less than one percent of the voters of any state can make a difference
I’m painfully familiar with the rules and implications of the Electoral College.
I invite you to offer data about, for example, the number of Obama voters in 2008 and 2012 who voted for Trump in 2020 in those three states.
For example, Joe Biden got more popular votes in Georgia than Barack Obama in 2012.
Unfortunately, more than we’d like.
Sure, no doubt. But what about those who voted for Obama in 2012 and 2016 then switched to Trump in 2020? Should we write them off?
We should first measure this alleged behavior. I see nothing beyond anecdotal claims that suggest it played and important role in the 2020 election.
The keys to winning are voter turnout and the small number, even less that 1% of voters, who are independents but can sway an election. Democrats did well with the former. We ignore the latter at our peril.
Still no data.
How many Georgia voters switched from Obama to Trump in 2020?
“Independent” is not synonymous with “Undecided”. The current political environment is so extremely polarized that I doubt that any attempt to pander to “ordinary working class” voters will change the outcome of the 2022 or 2024 election even a little bit.
Especially when that phrase — “ordinary working class” — is a dog-whistle among the GOP for “white”. I understand that you don’t intend it that way. Nevertheless, the GOP is pandering to the dark instincts of millions of white supremacists. It uses that same phrase “ordinary working class” as a dog-whistle or even bullhorn for “white”.
We must not sink to the level of the GOP. We must not use the same race-baiting euphemisms that the GOP, Fox News, and Donald Trump pollutes America with.
Even more importantly, we must not allow our unconscious white privilege to color our political attitudes as we see in the language, behavior, and actions of the GOP and its supporters.
America is already great. Black voters ARE American voters in spite of Mitch McConnell’s “slip of the tongue” to the contrary.
MANY black voters are “ordinary working class” men and women and the Democrats already speak to them.
The Democrats are not leaving them behind and never have.
As you know, the votes are not public. Estimates I have found place the number at slightly over 10%.
Yes, I own a dictionary. Thanks, though for the reminder.
Yup. I knew that too.
Hmm, not to me, not to most. Perhaps to those with a chip on their shoulder who see racism as every turn.
In fairness, you really ought to get out more. I only venture into Somerville a couple of times year, mostly the Davis Square area. It’s very comfortable for me and I have little or no fear of running into anyone who voted for Trump. I’ve been mingling out here on the Cape with a few who voted for Trump and have now sworn to never vote Republican again. Not a lot, maybe 0.6% of the people I meet. But again, 0.6% can be the difference.
In other words “I’m making this up as I go along.”
Uh huh. Bless your heart.
Still no data. No cites.
Indeed.
Also in fairness, chatting with your friends on lily-white Cape Cod and listening to Fox News does not inform you about things happening in Fulton County Georgia.
Hmm, lily white Cape….it seems that you do need to get out more. My current neighborhood is far from that.
Again, who you see in your neighborhood is not data.
Consider, for example, the “diversity index” derived from the 2020 US Census.
For Barnstable County (https://data.burlingtonfreepress.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/barnstable-county-massachusetts/050-25001/):
28%
For Middlesex County (https://data.burlingtonfreepress.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/middlesex-county-massachusetts/050-25017/):
55%
For Somerville (https://data.burlingtonfreepress.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/somerville-city-massachusetts/160-2562535/):
58%
As satisfying as it may be, you’re frankly in no position to bust my chops about “getting out more” when it comes to diversity. Once more you seem to confuse intensity of emotion with data.
The Cape is, in fact, lily-white compared to my neighborhood.
I did not know there would be a quiz. Okay, your horse it bigger than my horse.
But let’s take a look at voter demographics, eh? Not a lot of diversity in Somerville when it comes to the polls. Out here on the Cape, yeah, we have an unnerving number of Trump Cult type, but again, you seem uninterested n the 0.6% of voters that could make the difference. I’m trying to flip a few Trump voters by listening to them. If it helps you feel superior as you denigrate every 2020 Trump voter as ignorant vile racists, well, just remember how that approach by Hillary Clinton turned out in 2016.
Repeating your biases while not offering data makes my case for me.
Really?
I’ve already shown that Somerville has nearly twice as many non-white residents as Barnstable County.
Are you arguing that Somerville’s non-white residents don’t vote? Based on what data?
Perhaps you are instead saying that right-wing candidates don’t do well in Somerville.
If so, then I appreciate you making my argument for me.
You seem to “listen to them” very selectively.
You ignore the loud, relentless, and increasingly explicit utterances of hate, violence, racism, and misogyny that spew from the “leaders” they still admire.
You ignore the delusions, bizarre superstition, and outright fraud required to maintain their belief system.
I think I am listening to them — it appears to me that you are, in fact, refusing to hear what these deplorables are saying.
Repeating this tired and false trope does not make it more true or convincing.
Hillary Clinton did not lose in 2016 because she was too outspoken about the vile nature of Donald Trump and his deplorable supporters.
Hillary Clinton lost because:
None of these had anything whatsoever to do with what Ms. Clinton did or did not say about Mr. Trump.
There are persuasive arguments that Ms. Clinton could have and should have been more, rather than less, harsh in her utterances about Mr. Trump.
Your own vicious and apparently personal hostility to literally everyone in the Clinton family is notorious here for any of us familiar with your commentary.
The various editors and commentators for the Washington Post and New York Times have acknowledged, recanted and apologized for their hostile treatment of Ms. Clinton both in the editorial pages of their respective publications and also in their frequent appearances on CNN and MSNBC.
The eagerness with which they repeated rubbish about her emails is widely acknowledged now. The similar eagerness with which they repeated right-wing rubbish about Benghazi is similarly admitted.
Pandering to deplorable supporters of Donald Trump would NOT have changed the outcome of the 2016 elections. That pandering was not needed to win the 2020 presidential election.
Pandering to the worst aspects of some Americans is a characteristic of the GOP — NOT Democrats.
We should not pander to those at all, and we should certainly not pander to them in the 2022 or 2024 elections.
You are willing to write off 74,222,958 voters…..0.6% of that is 44,537 voters that you have no interest in getting back. Go ahead and insult them, take jabs at me, feel superior to us all. And then wonder why the next Trump has an even easier time winning an election that should be a slam dunk for Democrats.
Repetition does not improve your argument.
After decades of GOP gerrymandering and the concerted effort of a Supreme Court now dominated by white-supremacist-approved justices, a mere 40K voters is not going make a difference in the outcome of the election.
Mr. Biden won 81,283,361 votes in that same 2020 election. Mr. Biden’s margin of victory was more than 7 million votes.
You continue to resolutely refuse to examine actual data in specific states. You are pounding the table rather than participating in a dialog.
I insist that we rely on facts, logic, and data rather than opinion, prejudice, and speculative fantasy.
If you construe that as taking a “jab” at you, then that’s your issue — not mine.
I don’t see how you can be aware of the right-wing fascist mobs springing up everywhere that listen to Donald Trump and his minions and remain attached to your fantasies about “ordinary working class” voters that — if they ever existed — do not exist today.
Black Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans, German Americans, Portuguese Americans, Native American Indians — ALL of them are “ordinary working class voters”.
Most of them voted for Joe Biden. Most of them voted against Donald Trump — twice.
Donald Trump and GOP have redoubled their deplorable rhetoric since November of 2020. I strongly suspect that the outrageous, seditionist, white supremacist, and utterly false lies uttered since 2020 have driven away far more than the 46K voters you contemplate above.
Any of your neighbors who are STILL supporting Donald Trump today are deplorable. The lies of Mr. Trump and the GOP have made that so.
It’s that simple.
If you have the time, I recommend that you read Tightrope. By Kristof and WuDunn. Or you can continue to attack my character and dismiss the poor working class that has been abandoned by the Democratic Party. It’s your choice.
Even one neo-fascist is a dangerous cancer to democracy and will spread to eventually kill it.
Anyone who serves right-wing ends by embracing violence and lawlessness is an enemy of pluralism, democracy and equality under law.
So he has a pedigree – big deal! Those are usually the same folks who are raised to value public service. Judging someone by their heritage sounds very unprogressive. Again, sounds very personal.
Value public service, fine. It’s a good thing.
Go to the front of the line and run for statewide office, no. Run for a more modest office first, don’t use your privileged and entitled card to head straight to statewide office.
You are conflating two unrelated assertions. It is the conflation that is both incorrect and offensive.
It is perfectly reasonable and even persuasive to argue that a person with no experience in public service is unlikely to succeed (cf Donald Trump).
That statement is true for any candidate of any pedigree or background.
It is your relentless conflation of that true observation with Mr. Palfrey’s heritage and pedigree that is incorrect.
The idea of a cursus honorum is not completely invalid, though I’ll remind you that the incumbent AG never previously sought or held elective office either.
Maura worked in the AG’s office, and had a public record as a result of that work.
As has Palfrey. He was Assistant AG and Chief of the Health Care Division in the MA AG’s office. He has also served in the Obama White House and Deputy Counsel in the Department of Commerce, as well as a clerk for a US Circuit Judge. I guess you could say his path to office resembles Deval Patrick’s.
Oh, so Deval Patrick was a fifth generation legacy admit to Harvard?
No, but both Patrick’s and Palfrey’s OWN resumes include legal stints in the federal government before seeking elective office here. Forget about who their ancestors were!
Lots of contempt for voters on this thread, and this blog. But for candidates and elected officials it’s always Valentine’s Day. I thought Pablo was a little harsh. Maybe Quentin Palfrey will turn out to be the Smucker’s candidate.
But Jeez, the protestations here! Between the image of Tom nobly defending the oppressed Fulton County, GA voters from lily white Cape Cod, and Fred suing the term “moronic” in a comment (Don’t use that term anywhere near your name, Fred, It’s not good optics) . .
Do you guys have any self-awareness at all?
Uh, Bob, you might want to check a mirror before opening a discussion about “self-awareness”.